Individuals, small businesses and major corporations the (“Shipper(s)”) ship billions of parcels every year (small office/home office shippers are referred to as “SOHO” Shippers). Each parcel, also sometimes referred to herein as a package, is shipped by a Shipper using at least one parcel carrier (the “carrier(s)”, or “Carrier(s)”).
Each parcel is characterized by a set of “Parcel Specifications.” Parcel specifications include but are not limited to such factors as: parcel dimensions, parcel weight, parcel value, parcel value and the like.
Each Shipper is faced with certain shipping-requirements and limitations (“Shipping Requirements”), such as the location from which the parcel is to be shipped, time frame within which the particular parcel must arrive at its destination, the ability of the shipper to drop off the parcel, budgetary constraints with regard to the cost of shipping, insurance against loss, delivery notification, loss protection, and the like.
Each Carrier has its own unique rating schedule, and delivery and pickup rules and schedules for each of a multitude of different services. In some cases, a particular Carrier's rules may be available in a standalone Carrier-provided paper-based or computer system. Many Shippers attempt to work with each of the standalone, individual paper-based and computer Carrier-provided systems (“standalone Carrier system environment”) in order to ship a parcel.
A Shipper that uses standalone Carrier systems must sort through the various services offered by each carrier and apply each Carrier's rules to determine whether one or more carriers offer a service with which to deliver a particular parcel according to the Shipper's requirements. If the Shipper determines that more than one carrier offers a service with which to deliver a particular parcel according to the Shipper's requirements, then the particular Shipper might additionally be concerned with selecting a carrier and service that provide shipping services at the optimal price.
Before a Shipper can determine shipping rates for various carriers for a particular parcel, the Shipper must have an accurate weight of the parcel to which each carrier's shipping pricing rules must be applied. In some cases, a Shipper that does not have a scale must physically take a parcel to a location, such as a post office or shipping retail location where a scale is available with which to weight the parcel. In other cases, a Shipper weighs a parcel on a scale and then inputs the measured weight into a computer system that calculates shipping rates based on, among other things, the weight input by the user—if the Shipper is using multiple standalone carrier systems, the Shipper must input the same weight into each carrier system to obtain a calculated shipping rate for that carrier. In a global communications environment however, a digital scale interface is needed so that a shipping management system resident on a server computer device remote from the client computer device, can read a weight of a parcel place on the digital scale configured with the remote user client computer device.